Surgical Strike Pdf -IAS Mains -Full Analysis of Surgical Strike

Surgical Strike Pdf -IAS Mains -Full Analysis of Surgical Strike

Surgical Strike Pdf -IAS Mains -Full Analysis of Surgical Strike -On September 28, a total of six terror camps were demolished by the Indian Army at the Line of Control. The surgical strike was conducted by the special commandos of the army. The reports state that the commandos penetrated 3 kilometres into the India-Pakistan territory to carry out the secret operation.

Before we go further deep into the news, let us decode surgical strike for you in quick points:

A surgical strike is a military attack which is intended to demolish something specific or specific target to neutralise it.

It is done with an intention to not harm the surroundings.

No damage is intended to any structure, building etc.

An example of surgical strike is precision bombing which is conducted systematically and with much coordination.

The lines that have been crossed- Vipin Narang (GS Paper 2)

No serious analyst, scholar, or military officer ever argued that the threat of nuclear use against Indian forces was salient, or even possible, for operations across the LoC.

It is only operations across the international border — and more likely in the desert sector where India’s 21 Corps has a quantitative and manoeuvre advantage over Pakistan’s forces — which present possible targets for tactical nuclear use (such as logistics, bridgeheads, or concentrated armoured forces) where the threat of Pakistani nuclear use becomes salient.

The strike does not mean that India can now conduct operations that significantly attrite the Pakistan military or seize valuable territory across the international border.

The surgical strike does not herald a new era of conventional retaliatory options for India. This was not evidence that India has a proactive strategy (popularly known as Cold Start) option available for deeper punitive strikes — either on the ground or with air and stand-off capabilities.

The Narendra Modi government was very careful not to use helicopters across the LoC, and even the drone that recorded the strike could have easily loitered over Indian territory to do so.

This strike should therefore not be read as evidence that India has advanced its so-called Cold Start options.

The strike in no way suggests that the government has abandoned strategic restraint as a general grand strategy towards Pakistan.

There is a lot of confusion about what strategic restraint means. Most precisely, it means avoiding operations that risk major conventional escalation: attriting the Pakistan military or seizing valuable territory across the international border.

Strategic restraint does not mean “do nothing”. It means responding in a way that does not potentially become strategically costly for India by risking a broader conventional war, which carries with it not only human and economic costs, but also the risk of nuclear use if the war spills across the international border.

So what, then, are the major implications of the surgical strike? -Surgical Strike Pdf -IAS Mains -Full Analysis of Surgical Strike

Although the surgical strike demonstrated immense strategic restraint, it suggests that visibly “doing nothing” militarily may no longer be domestically politically tenable.

Although the Indian national security establishment is often given a lot of grief — for one, was there adequate force protection at Uri, and why were the jawans not in fire-retardant tents? — it deserves a lot of credit for how this finely calibrated operation was conceived, planned, executed, and managed.

The surgical strike shows Pakistan that it must now consider potential Indian responses in the future. And the nature of those responses may be unpredictable.